Easy access, moisture resistant, resuable, two-piece carton

ABSTRACT

An easy-access, moisture resistant, reusable, two-piece carton especially adapted for holding computer forms. The carton of the present invention is reusable in the sense that it is usable first for shipping of items such as one-ply cut sheet forms and subsequently is uniquely usable again for storage of the forms during the period of use and withdrawal of the forms.

This is a continuation of co-pending application Ser. No. 878,094 filedon June 24, 1986, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,348

The present invention relates to an easy-access, moisture resistant,reusable, two-piece carton especially adapted for holding computerforms. The carton of the present invention is reusable in the sense thatit is usable first for shipping of items such as one-ply cut sheet formsand subsequently is uniquely usable again for storage of the formsduring the period of use and withdrawal of the forms.

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

Two-piece cartons comprising a bottom part and a lid or top part whichis placed over the bottom part, acting as a closure, are well known.These cartons are often used for such purposes as shipping and storage,and hold a variety of items, such as business forms and other suchitems. Generally, the cartons are rectangular in configuration havingside, end, and top and bottom panels, wherein the lid side and endpanels slide over and downward against the bottom part side and endpanels, in a close fitting relationship with the bottom part panels.Normally the lid side and end panels are relatively short in heightdimension, in contrast to the bottom part wherein these panels arerelatively deep or long in height, to permit the carton to hold a largenumber of whatever items are contained in the carton.

Although one might consider a generally rectangular shipping carton tobe an ideal mode for shipping and storing a loose pack of forms, severalproblems have made this particular end use for shipping and storingone-ply cut sheet forms less than practical. One is that stacked items,such as cut sheet forms, are not readily removable on a one-by-one basisfrom deep recesses such as a carton. Removal generally requires grippingand removing several forms or even the whole stack. Another problem isthat the cartons are not resistant to moisture transmission, and thecontents in the absense of special precautions, are susceptible tochanges in atmospheric conditions. This is especially undesirable in thecase of computer cut sheet forms because of the requirement, in theoperation of computers, that humidity cnditions in the environs of thecomputer be closely controlled.

As a result, it has been conventional practice in the shipment andstorage of computer forms to shrink wrap small sets of the forms intopacks, for instance about 500 sheets each, and then place these packs ina carton. The customer, on receipt of a shipment, individually unwraps apack, each time an old pack is exhausted, and disposes of the shrinkfilm and chipboard used to separate the individual packs. This has theobvious undesirable features that, first, the step of unwrapping a packis time-consuming and, second, many forms are in a loose stackedcondition until use, once a pack is unwrapped.

One object of the present invention is to provide a shipping cartonwhich can be used for a large number of forms in which wrappingindividual packs of forms is unnecessary.

Another object of the present invention is to provide such a cartonwhich can also be used for storage of the forms, i.e., one in whichremoval of the forms one at a time is made easily possible.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The present invention resides in an improved two-piece carton especiallyadapted for the shipment and storage of computer forms comprising abottom part and a top part; each part comprising side and end panels;the bottom part further comprising bottom panel means and the top partfurther comprising top panel means; the bottom part side and end panelshaving a depth effective for containing a high stack of forms; the toppart side and end panels having a similar depth effective to cover mostof the surface of the bottom part side and end panels when the top partis in an overlapping closure position with regard to the bottom part; atleast one of the end panels of the bottom part being connected to thebottom part side panels along lines of perforations to permit handseparation of said end panel from the side panels.

Preferably, the top part end panels are provided with cutouts centeredalong the lower edges of said end panels to permit the use of automaticstrapping machinery in the closing of said cartons, and to facilitateremoval of the top part or lid from the bottom part prior to use of thecarbon contents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention and advantages thereof will become more apparentupon consideration of the following specification with reference to theaccompanying drawings, in which

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a carton in accordance with the conceptsof the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a sheet from which the bottom part of thecarton of FIG. 1 is prepared; and

FIG. 3 is a plane view of a sheet from which the top part or lid of thecarton of FIG. 1 is prepared.

BEST MODE OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

Turning to FIG. 1, the carton of the present invention is designatedbroadly with the numeral 12. As shown, the carton comprises a bottompart 14 and a top part 16 or lid adapted to be placed over the bottompart. The bottom part is generally rectangular in configuration and iscomprised of end panels 18 and 20 and side panels 22 and 24. The bottompart is also comprised of a bottom panel means 26, to be described,shown in dotted lines.

As shown, the height of the end and side panels of the bottom part issufficient for the part to contain a large number of items, for instancea relatively high stack of computer forms. In actual practice, it iscontemplated that the carbons will be sized to contain two stacks ofcomputer sheets, the stacks being in side-by-side relationship, with achip board divider between the stacks.

Similarly, the top part 16 comprises end panels 28 and 30, and sidepanels 32 and 34, the side panel 32 being shown in dotted lines. The toppart or lid also is provided with a top panel means 36, to be described.

As shown, the dimensions for the top part are substantially the same asthose for the bottom part, with the exception that the dimensions areadjusted to allow the top part panels to fit down over the outside ofthe panels of the bottom part. In this respect, it is an importantfeature of the present invention that the end and side panels of the toppart have approximately the same height dimension as the heightdimension of these panels of the bottom part.

Both the bottom and top parts are made out of corrugated fiberboard, forinstance a single wall corrugated fiberboard that tests at 200 lbs. /sqinch.

Details of the flat sheets used to make the top and bottom parts areshown in FIGS. 2 and 3. For instance, referring to FIG. 2, going fromleft to right there is shown side panel 22, end panel 18 which can alsobe referred to as the front panel, second side panel 24 and end panel20. Attached to the bottom edges of the successive panels are flaps 38,40, 42 and 44, which make up in part the bottom panel of the bottompart. The flaps are separated from each other along cut lines 46, whichare 3/8 inch wide slots.

The side and end panels are connected to each other by veritical scorelines 48, which permit the panels to be folded relative to each other,and these panels are also connected to the respective flaps byhorizontal score lines 50 which permit the flaps to be folded relativethe side and end panels. In the Example illustrated, the sheet size isabout 52 inches by 161/2 inches, with each vertical score line beingspaced at 135/8 inches or 121/8 inches, alternatively, from an adjacentvertical score line.

In the Example illustrated in FIG. 2, the end panel 18 defines asmentioned the front of the carton bottom part, and the vertical scorelines for this panel are provided with spaced perforations which permita user to tear the panel from adjacent panels along the connecting linesof perforation (lines 52 and 54) to fold the panel out of the way forremoval of the carton contents. In this Example, the vertical scorelines 52 and 54 of the panel 18 are provided with, starting from thetop, a 3/4 inch cut, a 1/8 inch tie, a 1 inch cut, a second 1/8 inchtie, a 51/2 inch cut, a 1/4 inch tie, and finally a 21/4 inch cut.

To form the bottom part, after the sheet is cut, scored andappropriately perforated, the end and side panels are folded onto eachother in a conventional fashion while at the same time folding up theflaps 38, 40, 42 and 44 to make up the bottom of the carton bottom part.At this point, the panels 22 and 20 are glued together by means of gluetab 55 connected to panel 22 along fold line 57. Subsequently, acorrugated filler pad (not shown) is placed into the bottom of thebottom part, against the overlaping bottom flaps, and is glued intoplace to hold the carton together when the end flap 18 is separated fromthe rest of the panels along the lines of perforation described above.The filler pad has approximately the same inside dimensions as thebottom part, taken in a horizontal cross-section view.

Details of the top part or lid for the carton are shown in FIG. 3. Aswith the bottom part, the lid is formed from a sheet which in thisExample is about 531/2 inches by 163/4 inches in dimension and scoredalong vertical score lines spaced alternatively at 121/2 inches and 14inches apart from each other. The 121/2 horizontal dimensions define theend panels 28 and 30 and the 14 inch dimensions define the side panels34 and 32. Also, each of these panels is provided with a flap (items 60,62, 64 and 66) wherein the flaps are separated from each other by 3/8inch slots 68 with the flaps being connected to the respective panels bymeans of score lines 70. The score and cut lines permit the variouspanels and flaps to be folded into the configuration shown in FIG. 1with one of the end panels being connectable to one of the side panelsalong a joint tab 72. The joint tab is foldable over into a planevertical to the plane of the drawing by means of a score line 74 betweenthe tab and panel. Subsequent to folding the sheet into theconfiguration illustrated in FIG. 1, and gluing the carton along gluetab 72, the flaps 60-66 are taped together with suitable taping acrossthe top in the manner shown in FIG. 1.

An important feature of the present invention is providing each endpanel with a cutout (80) centered along the panel lower edge. By way ofexample, the top of the cutout is about 27/8 inches from the panel loweredge. The purpose of these cutouts is twofold, first to facilitateraising the lid off of the bottom part and, second, to provide clearanceand bottom part access for the application of tape to the bottom part ofthe carton as shown in FIG. 1.

In operation, the bottom part is placed on a filling table once it hasbeen folded and optionally taped, and the filler pad has been glued inplace. Two stacks of cut sheet paper or forms are placed in the cartonbottom part, kept separated by a 0.020 gauge chipboard. The two stacksare sufficiently high that they extend to 1/2 inch above the top of thebottom part. This 1/2 inch of material is used to form a stop for thelid when it is placed over and slid down over the bottom part.

After the lid is in place the carton is taped as shown and then strappedwith two straps to hold the lid down. These strips extend around thegirth of the box and are applied in a strapping machine. They areapplied with sufficient tension to exert a compressive force of the lidon the paper stacks of about 150 lbs./sq/inch.

A key feature of the carton of the present inention is to keep moisturefrom the atmosphere or storage conditions from penetrating into thecarton contents. This is in part accomplished by the double-wall cartonthickness provided by the end and side panels, for the carton top partor lid, which are of essentially the same height as the same panels ofthe carton bottom part and thus almost fully overlap the bottom panels.In addition, the compressive force of the strapping causes the stacks ofcut sheet paper or forms to substantially fill the carbon leaving fewair spaces or voids for the flow of moisture into the carton.

The carton after being strapped is placed on a pallet covered by a layerof 7 mil stretch film. By way of example, 36 cartons can be stacked on apallet. The fully stacked pallet is then covered with the stretch filmon the top and and sides. The packed and wrapped pallet is delivered tothe customer's computer room which is humidity controlled before beingunwrapped. This further keeps moisture from penetrating the paper withinthe carton.

Above, it was mentioned that conventional practice involved shrinkwrapping small sets of forms into individual packs. A typical pack maycontain 500 sheets.

By comparison, in the present invention, a carton can contain as many astwo stacks of the same sheets, each stack consisting of 2250 sheets. Atthe same time, removability of the front panel of the bottom part fromits position permits the sheets to be withdrawn readily, one or a few ata time, without disturbing the stacked condition of the reset of thesheets.

We claim:
 1. A two-piece carton containing a stack of one-ply cut sheetsespecially adapted for shipment, storage and dispensing of such cutsheets comprising:a bottom part comprising four side panels and a bottompanel defining a rectangular carton bottom piece configuation open onlyat the top adapted to contain said stack of one-ply cut sheets; a pairof generally straight perforation lines extending from said top downconnecting one of said side panels in the bottom part, said perforationlines being dimensioned and positioned effective to permit handseparation of at least a substantial portion of said one side panel fromthe configuration of said bottom part to expose said stack of one-plycut sheets and to provide access through a side of said bottom part toallow removal of said one-ply cut sheets through said access; a top partcomprising four side panels and a top panel defining a rectangularcarton top piece configuration open only at the bottom, the top partside panels having an orientation, height dimension, and substantiallythe same peripheral dimensions as the bottom part, effective to cover atleast most of the surface of the bottom part side panels and said linesof perforations when the top part is in an overlapping telescopingclosure relationship with the bottom part; said coverage of the bottompart side panels by the top part side panels also being effective toresist moisture ingress into said carton.
 2. A two-piece cartonaccording to claim 1, wherein said sheets are computer forms.
 3. Atwo-piece carton according to claim 2, wherein said lines ofperforations comprise alternate cut and tie areas.
 4. A two-piece cartonaccording to claim 1, wherein said lines of perforations comprisealternate cut and tie areas.